From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. I just had to post this. As fans are being priced out of the NFL experience, the NFL finds ways to squeeze the last penny out of anybody and any entity it can. It is the NFL offering a drug in the form of football, for which the drug dealer will use any means available to create the addicts and make sure that their pathologic dependency can only be quenched by greater and greater financial sacrifices...............In the days of Al Capone, they euphemistically called it "protection."

The National Football League had a long and expensive list of confidential requests before it awarded the 2018 Super Bowl to Minneapolis.

Free police escorts for team owners, and 35,000 free parking spaces. Presidential suites at no cost in high-end hotels. Free billboards across the Twin Cities. Guarantees to receive all revenue from the game’s ticket sales — even a requirement for NFL-preferred ATMs at the stadium.

Those requirements and many others are detailed in 153 pages of NFL specifications for the game. An official on the host committee that successfully sought the game — Minneapolis beat out Indianapolis and New Orleans — said the panel had agreed to a majority of the conditions but would not elaborate.

The document, which the Star Tribune obtained through sources, has not been released publicly but shows how the NFL will control the event and many of its public aspects. The NFL declined to comment on the document and host committee officials are declining to make it public, citing state data privacy laws.

NFL confidential demands for Minneapolis to host Super Bowl

In 153 pages of previously-secret bid specifications [included in this article], the plan to have the NFL control many of the public and private aspects of the event is outlined.

The National Football League had a long and expensive list of confidential requests before it awarded the 2018 Super Bowl to Minneapolis.

Free police escorts for team owners, and 35,000 free parking spaces. Presidential suites at no cost in high-end hotels. Free billboards across the Twin Cities. Guarantees to receive all revenue from the game’s ticket sales — even a requirement for NFL-preferred ATMs at the stadium.

Those requirements and many others are detailed in 153 pages of NFL specifications for the game. An official on the host committee that successfully sought the game — Minneapolis beat out Indianapolis and New Orleans — said the panel had agreed to a majority of the conditions but would not elaborate.

The document, which the Star Tribune obtained through sources, has not been released publicly but shows how the NFL will control the event and many of its public aspects. The NFL declined to comment on the document and host committee officials are declining to make it public, citing state data privacy laws.
NFL confidential demands for Minneapolis to host Super Bowl

In 153 pages of previously-secret bid specifications, the plan to have the NFL control many of the public and private aspects of the event is outlined.
Minneapolis City Council President Barb Johnson said “incentives” were necessary to host the Super Bowl, but Mayor Betsy Hodges’ office said it did not know what the city’s host committee ultimately agreed to. “We haven’t seen the bid, so we don’t know what was agreed to,” said Kate Brickman, Hodges’ spokeswoman.

The host committee, which was co-chaired by U.S. Bancorp chief executive Richard Davis, says it has $30 million in private pledges that will be used to help offset public costs for staging the game. But like the bid details, the committee has refused to release information on the private fundraising. A spokesperson said Davis was unavailable for comment.

Others are criticizing the secrecy of the process. “This is wrong,” said former Gov. Arne Carlson, who noted that the game will be played in a new $1 billion Vikings stadium built with a great deal of public financing. “This is a huge public event. It should be transparent. We should know how the NFL operates.”

The NFL’s requests covered everything from free access to three “top quality” golf courses during the summer or fall before the Super Bowl, to free curbside parking at a yet-to-be designated NFL House — defined as a “high-end, exclusive drop-in hospitality facility for our most valued and influential guests to meet, unwind, network and conduct business.”

‘Government Guarantees’

Under a six-page “Government Guarantees” section, the NFL also asked that local police provide officers, at no cost, for anti-counterfeit enforcement teams focused on tickets and merchandise. Other provisions in the section ask for government resolutions requiring “high-level management” at local airports to “cooperate with those needing special services”, including those arriving on team charters and private planes. The NFL also asked that government licensing fees be waived for as many as 450 courtesy cars and buses.

The “Government Guarantees” section, in addition, also demands that public officials create “clean zones” that cover at least a one-mile radius around the football stadium and a six-block radius from the NFL’s headquarters hotel. Creating “clean zones,” according to the NFL, typically “restricts certain activities” and “provides for the temporary suspension of new, and possibly existing, permits for such activities.”

In other parts of the bid specifications, the league asked that at least 20 free billboards “in NFL designated areas” across the Twin Cities be made available. The host city also was asked to pay all travel and expenses for an optional “familiarization trip” for 180 people to come to the Twin Cities in advance of the Super Bowl to inspect the region.

TVs, ATMs, bowling

The NFL’s requirements strike at every phase of the game’s preparations.

For example, the document notes that if placing logos of the NFL, Super Bowl, and teams that are playing in the game on the field requires different turf to be installed in the new downtown Minneapolis stadium, there would be no charge for that to the league. Also, the document states that the hotels where the teams stay should be obligated to televise the NFL Network for a year before the Super Bowl — at no cost to the league.

The NFL asked that if cellphone signal strength at the team hotels is not strong enough, then the host committee — at no cost to the league — “will be responsible [for erecting] a sufficient number of portable cellular towers.”

Inside the stadium for the Super Bowl, the league asked that it be able to install ATMs that accept NFL preferred credit and debit cards — and for officials to cover or remove ATMs that “conflict with NFL preferred payment services.”

In another requirement, the NFL requested that as many as two “top quality bowling venues” be reserved at no cost to the league for the Super Bowl Celebrity Bowling Classic.THE REST OF THIS PATHETIC STORY

EllisUnit

06-08-2014 12:33 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Who do these guys think they are ........god ? If no city does any of these dumb demands they will have to pick a city regardless.

Greed is the root of all evil.

infantrycak

06-08-2014 12:50 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

We're complaining about supply and demand now?

Y'all may have noticed, the hottest b!tch in the bar gets to be picky.

CloakNNNdagger

06-08-2014 01:00 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Quote:

Originally Posted by infantrycak
(Post 2349022)

We're complaining about supply and demand now?

Y'all may have noticed, the hottest b!tch in the bar gets to be picky.

Yeh, but the problem is when the only one in the bar is ugly as H*ll, she still ends up the hottest b!tch in the bar.

kingtexan

06-08-2014 01:00 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Quote:

Originally Posted by infantrycak
(Post 2349022)

We're complaining about supply and demand now?

Y'all may have noticed, the hottest b!tch in the bar gets to be picky.

Not if you ruffie her ass ...

Playoffs

06-08-2014 01:01 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Interesting title...

Tell how you really feel about it, Doc..? :fingergun:

At least it doesn't have the usual "star" riders...

Quote:

No staff or other persons will make direct eye contact with Xxxxx,
No staff or other persons will make physical contact with Xxxxx,
No staff or other persons will speak to Xxxxx unless spoken to,
All staff or other persons will sign non-disclosure agreements punishable by death.

infantrycak

06-08-2014 02:07 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Quote:

Originally Posted by CloakNNNdagger
(Post 2349024)

Yeh, but the problem is when the only one in the bar is ugly as H*ll, she still ends up the hottest b!tch in the bar.

There's always the priesthood.

badboy

06-08-2014 02:41 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

I respectfully disagree. Some fans act like a fifteen year old girl stating she just has to wear the latest pair of $100 jeans to school. No you don't have to pay outrageous ticket prices or refreshment cost, parking cost etc. I enjoy a game on TV much more than I have in person. Businesses routinely seek out "freebies" from cities and states to move into their area and these entities jump through hoops to the get dollars.

NFL is doing what it is allowed to do just like we would if we could. It may be a whore but look how many customers keep lining up.

eriadoc

06-08-2014 06:08 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Quote:

Originally Posted by badboy
(Post 2349042)

NFL is doing what it is allowed to do just like we would if we could. It may be a whore but look how many customers keep lining up.

So you're in favor of legalizing prostitution? ;)

EllisUnit

06-08-2014 06:15 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Quote:

Originally Posted by infantrycak
(Post 2349022)

We're complaining about supply and demand now?

Y'all may have noticed, the hottest b!tch in the bar gets to be picky.

Not if noone wants her. Same way with government, military 1 person dont make a difference it take everyone as a whole to make it work. And of course that will never happen due to greed.

infantrycak

06-08-2014 06:49 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Quote:

Originally Posted by EllisUnit
(Post 2349086)

Not if noone wants her.

Like that ever happens.

EllisUnit

06-08-2014 08:14 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Quote:

Originally Posted by infantrycak
(Post 2349092)

Like that ever happens.

Not like it matters, if your comparing guys, when it comes to the male sexual organs in the long run beauty means nothing.

Be at the bar at 2AM hear them say last call and take a look around, its amazing how much differently your version of beauty becomes ;)

Double Barrel

06-09-2014 11:56 AM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Quote:

Originally Posted by infantrycak
(Post 2349022)

We're complaining about supply and demand now?

Y'all may have noticed, the hottest b!tch in the bar gets to be picky.

Yeah, I don't get the disassociation from the free market concept.

The same fans that whine and b!tch and moan will be on their asses watching this game.

Don't like it? Very simple solution: don't watch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingtexan
(Post 2349025)

Not if you ruffie her ass ...

Date rape metaphor. Niiiiiiice. :kubepalm:

Quote:

Originally Posted by EllisUnit
(Post 2349103)

Not like it matters, if your comparing guys, when it comes to the male sexual organs in the long run beauty means nothing.

Be at the bar at 2AM hear them say last call and take a look around, its amazing how much differently your version of beauty becomes ;)

The NFL and Super Bowl are not some chick trying to get laid at a bar at 2:00 a.m.

The NFL and Super Bowl are like the women in the Miss America pageant, or like super models. They might thank you for holding the door open for them...if you don't have body odor.

You're talking more like minor league baseball team with your analogy. They have much, much lower standards. :fingergun:

Thorn

06-10-2014 12:55 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

The hoopla surrounding the super bowl has gotten out of hand. The week before the super bowl is getting unbearable. The only reason I watch the NFL is because of the Texans, I sure as hell don't watch it because I love the game of professional football. If Houston has a team, I'll watch, if not, I don't. It's simple.

I don't even like professional sports as entertainment. It's stupid and useless. I prefer a good movie or a book. But I'm a sucker for the home town pro football team. I have no idea why, I'm just like that.

And the NFL being a greedy bastard organization shouldn't surprise anyone anyway. They aren't in it for the football, they are in it for the money so get your heads out of your collective asses and realize that. Otherwise they wouldn't even be considering an 18 game season with expanded playoffs.

disaacks3

06-10-2014 01:32 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Quote:

Originally Posted by badboy
(Post 2349042)

Businesses routinely seek out "freebies" from cities and states to move into their area and these entities jump through hoops to the get dollars.

NFL is doing what it is allowed to do just like we would if we could. It may be a whore but look how many customers keep lining up.

To a point. The idea of public-funded entities handing out freebies (it's just taxpayer $$ after all) without disclousure is somewhat galling.

Some of what I personally deem over-the-top might not bother others, but it does me.

Example:

Quote:

Under a six-page “Government Guarantees” section, the NFL also asked that local police provide officers, at no cost, for anti-counterfeit enforcement teams focused on tickets and merchandise.

This is a corporate entity asking that a portion of a taxpayer-funded force be used exclusively for the benefit of that corporation to protect only the corporate interests. This isn't an escort for VIPs, this isn't a voluntary (or paid) funeral escort, this isn't cleaning up the hookers from the park, this is pulling cops off the street, at taxpayer expense, not to protect the public (which you could claim w/ stadium security), but to protect the copyright of the NFL.

Hervoyel

06-10-2014 02:08 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

Be thankful that we have the NFL and that our brand of football isn't run by FIFA

For what it's worth, the FIFA comparison is a bit of an apples to oranges case. FIFA is a governing body, more similar to the International Cricket Council or other similar bodies than the NFL. A better comparison to the NFL might be the English Premier League in Soccer and the Indian Premier League in Cricket.

FIFA and the ICC are more susceptible to internal power struggles between countries/members (i.e. India hogging up revenue negotiations and ruining cricket worldwide in the name of money) than the NFL or the NBA - Sterling can't crash the NBA, but India could ruin the ICC.

Double Barrel

06-10-2014 04:10 PM

Re: NFL-Greedy "Backdoor" Deals Whore Out SuperBowl City

The NFL makes these conditions for hosting the Super Bowl for the exact same reason that a dog licks its nuts.